A Health and Disability Commissioner (HDC) report released yesterday said the man should have been given an MRI scan within 31 days after an urgent referral from an orthopaedic surgeon.
Instead, by the time he received the scan the cancer had spread to his spine and was considered terminal.
Melissa Vining said the case was incredibly sad, and showed postcode healthcare continued to affect those in Otago and Southland.
Mrs Vining said the continual denial from Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand (HNZ) and politicians the health system was in crisis was an insult to the patients being harmed, and to the medical professionals who worked tirelessly in it.
"We have more health bureaucrats than ever before and worse outcomes for patients and health professionals.
"Your health outcomes shouldn’t be determined by where you live.
"We need more workforce to ensure patients receive the care they deserve."
The situation was detailed in a HDC report briefing released yesterday.
The case follows a scathing HDC report released in April, which assessed non-surgical cancer treatment services from 2016-22 and found hundreds of people in Otago and Southland suffered harm as repeated calls to address dire wait times were ignored.
HNZ Southern accepted the HDC finding the delay in giving the man a MRI scan breached the patient’s rights and acknowledged it was down to a "systemic failure in its process".
It had made changes — including adding another MRI scanner for the hospital — to reduce the chance of failure in future, it said.
The HDC report briefing said the man, who had a history of cancerous melanoma, was referred for an urgent MRI in late 2021 after he went to see an orthopaedic surgeon about pain in his left leg.
The accepted practice at the time was for an urgent MRI scan to be carried out within 31 days.
The man’s 20-week wait for a scan was more than four times that and by the time it was done it showed metastatic cancer in his spine, which had caused spinal cord compression.
The man, who was not named in the report briefing, said: "This delay meant further spread of the cancer through my spine and organs, resulting in the current situation whereby the cancer is now not survivable."
HNZ Southern told the HDC that since the events it had taken steps to improve service.
The additional MRI scanner improved wait times for urgent scans.
The average wait time as of March 2023 was four to six weeks, down from 15-20 weeks at the time of the man’s care.
It had updated its radiology referrals management policy, and was working with HNZ and the Cancer Control Agency to explore a digital way to improve the tracking of cancer patients.
The report briefing recommended HNZ Southern provide a written apology to the man, provide the HDC with a progress report on the development of the digital solution, a copy of its updated referrals management policy, and an update on its current wait times for an urgent MRI.
Otago and Southland Cancer Society chief executive Nicola Coom said the society was deeply concerned about the situation.
She also stressed the need for more clinicians after years of successive government underfunding.
"Timely diagnosis and treatment are paramount in effective cancer management, and increasing staffing is a key step in improving healthcare quality."
Southern chief medical officer David Gow said HNZ had apologised to the patient and his family, and was committed to implementing the HDC recommendations.
"We appreciate that not receiving healthcare in an accepted timeframe is very concerning and stressful for any patient.
"Since this incident occurred, changes to practice have been made, and we would like to reassure our community that these changes will reduce the chances of our systems and processes failing in the future."
HNZ did not provide current waiting times when asked by the ODT yesterday.
